My first big trade on Wall Street was approved by a fat man smoking cigarettes in a stairway littered with the butts from past conversations. That man, John, was the head of trading at Salomon Brothers, on the executive board, and only one step below the CEO. It was 1994 and he had been with the firm twenty years as a trader. I had been there just one.
via What I saw as a Wall Street trader: a culture of bad behaviour | Business | theguardian.com.
